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Here's a hint on how you might be able get a really nice laptop -- really cheaply:
It's not the best time of year to do so, but check your local school systems, and find out which ones provide laptops for their high school students and teachers.
Those that do, usually replace them after a year, or, at most, two.
Our local system happened to get a grant from Apple; other schools get similar deals from Microsoft or other PC suppliers.
During the last school year, our system supplied Middle School students with iPads, High School students with MacBook Airs, and teachers with MacBook Pros. They were all turned back in at school year's end.
After school, they ordered new replacements. Then, after the IT Department had cleaned the hard drives to purge all student/teacher data, etc., they quietly announced a sale of the surplus items.
My wife got a pristine, year-old Macbook Air -- with the latest OS and all the "free" software -- for $200 -- and she loves it! Our two college-bound granddaughters got similar MacBook Pros for $300 each!
The sales were first announced quietly in the students-only partition of the School's website; then, sale of the remainder (hundreds) was announced on the public section of the website.
Quite a few that went unsold were kept as "loaners" for the next school year, and, I understand that a quiet inquiry directed to the school's IT department may still make one available for sale to citizens who really need/want one...
Check with your local schools -- websites, and especially their IT departments. You might just turn up a surprisingly affordable deal on a nice laptop!
Good hunting!!
TXnMA
